It was the first time on the Cabbage Festival, when I saw the stuffed cabbage is cooked in bogrács (kettle.)

I guess stuffed cabbage is a well-known and popular savoury food in many parts of Europe and Western Asia, but made differently everywhere. Many years ago (during high school), I spent a summer in Israel where I tasted the kosher variety without smoked pork and sour cream. To be honest, I could never be a kosher because the stuffed cabbage is only good with sour cream and smoke pork :) Like on this picture.

2 small cans of contadina tomato paste - mix both cans with enough water to cover entire pot of stuffed cabbage for cooking.

Oil and flour for the roux

1. Remove core from the cabbage. Separate the leaves and boil them uncovered for 5 minutes or until soft enough to roll. Dry and reserve liquid.

2. Combine the meat, rice, spices, and eggs, mix well with your hands. Lay out a leaf of cabbage and center about 2 tablespoons of meat. Fold up sides and roll up ends to seal each roll. Continue with all the meat and cabbage.

3. To fill the pot, start with a layer of that chopped up cabbage mixed with sauerkraut. Then place the stuffed cabbage. Add another layer of chopped cabbage and sauerkraut on top of that, then another layer of stuffed cabbage. Keep going like this until you run out of stuffed cabbage, and add a final layer of chopped cabbage and sauerkraut on top.

4. Add the tomato saft, the smoked pork and the water to just cover the contents of the pot. Cook on simmer for one and half hour or until rice is tender.

sorry, sour cream is unappealing to me. I would do this without sour cream. Use ground turkey instead of pork/beef. Maybe a bit of ground bison mixed with the turkey. Leave out the garlic. Add a few caraway seeds. Use a bit of the hot paprika. Maybe a bit of bell pepper as well.

sounds very much like my Ma'sexcept she did not use garlic- I will try with the garlic- never used sour cream either but it should be good- I do use smoked sausage cut into small slices-Ma always put that in- she used homemade smoked polish sausage- I have not gone to get some yet so I just use what is in the market- its not as flavorful but it does make the meal taste better--I also use the same amt of pork as beef and only about 1/4 veal as veal is too lean- and I like my stuffed cabbage to be soft -using only beef and not much pork makes the rolls hard--

This recipe looks delicious just the way it is! VERY similar to my Grandmother's recipe (except the garlic, may have to try it with that). We always use pork mince in ours as it makes them a good consistency and sour cream is a MUST with them. Yum!

Sounds very close to how mom used to make this. No garlic, or sour cream. If you don't use chop meat and pork butt...then you're not making it authentic. My dad used to go to Passaic NJ to a Hungarian butcher who would smoke homemade Hungarian kielbasa. This would be sautéed and added in between the stuffed cabbage. Always tastes better the next day. :) Thank you for the recipe! Can't wait to make this. Yum